If Erik Bedard could talk, he’d be Jarrod Washburn

Erik Bedard hates you, but you’ll never hear him say it. Jarrod Washburn, on the other hand, hates you and isn’t afraid to let you know.

Lately, a lot of people have been making their opinions on Washburn public, including the guys over at USS Mariner, who had this to say. The basic consensus is that Jarrod Washburn is a jackass. He’s Erik Bedard with a voice, which means he’s angry and telling everyone about it.

To be honest, I can’t blame the guy. He’s basically sucked his whole Mariner career and no one appreciates it. He’s getting paid waaaaaay more than he’s actually worth, and the fans don’t like that. So we pick on him, and he lets us know he doesn’t like being picked on. Makes sense, right?

You can’t fault Jarrod for signing his bloated contract. I mean, if you were offered a salary much greater than you were actually worth, you would probably sign it too. Nobody’s perfect. However, that contract goes both ways. At the time you sign it, you’re excited to be earning so much money, but you know you can’t live up to the terms. You’re just not that talented. And Jarrod should have understood that when he inked his deal. He was signing himself away to figures he could never meet when it came to performance. He was earning ace money, when in reality, he’s more of a fourth or fifth starter.

But Jarrod knows all this already. Jarrod knows that everyone hates him. I mean, unless you have some kind of weird chipmunk fetish or something. “Nobody ever says it to my face,” he said. “I think most of those people who do that … they hide behind their computer and write it online and do all that and nobody ever knows who’s saying it. Lots of people can do that.” Like me, for example.

Remember this day? I know, I'm trying to repress it too.

Of course, at the same time, when asked to assess his performance of last season, Jarrod probably overestimates himself a bit. “On paper, you look at it — and [people felt] I sucked,” he said. “I mean, I wasn’t very good. But I didn’t suck.” Interesting analysis. I would say you sucked last year, but that’s just me. You were horrible when we were in contention, and as soon as the playoffs were an impossible dream, you all of a sudden turned it on (right around the trade deadline, no less).

Add that to the fact that you were a jerk to your teammates, especially catcher Kenji Johjima. He’s Japanese. You’re from the midwest. I can understand how you might not get along, but Christ, at least make an effort. You’ve been a d-bag to this guy for at least an entire year, ripping him in public, and even showing him up in games with your attitude and reactions during his mound visits. It’s unfortunate that your performance is down, but the big reason no one likes you is because your personality blows. You know Seattle. We’re big on personality in our athletes. Just ask your teammate, Junior.

I want you to play great this year, Jarrod. I want your absolute best. And I expect it too, because it’s a contract year. I hope you turn it on early, and then come July we can hopefully pawn you off on a contender. That would be the ultimate scenario. So don’t let me down. Don’t be a cancer in the clubhouse. Don’t give up the gopher balls. Just go out there, be a pro, and earn those millions upon millions that we’re foolishly paying you right now. If you can do that, you’ll hear nothing from the likes of me and other disgruntled fans out there. Good luck.

3 thoughts on “If Erik Bedard could talk, he’d be Jarrod Washburn”

If Eric Bedard could talk he’d be Jarrod Washburn, with considerably better baseball ability. I might be one of the only people out there that isn’t really bothered by Bedard’s personality. I mean, Gas of KJR said yesterday he asked Bedard for 10 minutes of his time and Bedard said, “Sure!” but right after that some other media person asked him for 2 minutes and Bedard just said, “No.” That just kind of makes me laugh.

Unless you’re attacking the fan base like Jarrod Washburn or going out there committing stupid crimes, I could care less on whether or not you like to talk to the media. I do care that you pitch well and that is something that Washburn hardly did at all last year and something Bedard only did for a few innings a night.

I’m going to give Bedard the benefit of the doubt for last season and hope to God that he can pitch more than 95 pitches a night this year. If he says he’s fully healthy this year, he better be ready to go out there and try to get to get deeper into games. As for Washburn, I’m just done with him. Not getting rid of him last year was a very stupid decision and now we don’t have room to get the young talent, such as Ryan Rowland-Smith, into the rotation.

Speaking of Bedard, he was just interviewed by the Gas Man and Jeff Nelson on KJR and he pieced together a pretty nice conversation. I gotta say, the change from last year to this year so far is fantastic. Keep it up, Erik!

I heard the interview too, and he sounded 360 from last year. Too bad Nellie was sucking up his butt, he really didn’t need to patronize him like that. Bedard sounded like he was willing and happy to do the interview without the sucking up. And Gas had to beat the interview thing to death.
Go Erik, you sounded like a regular guy, which is all the fans would like to know about you.